Visa, Mastercard and Ant International said they are working together to create common standards for payments carried out by artificial intelligence agents, an initiative aimed at establishing verification and monitoring mechanisms for these automated transactions.
The collaboration will focus on developing interoperability and governance frameworks that can help confirm the identity and authority of AI agents making payments, and on tools to trace and monitor transaction activity. The partners described the work as an effort to ensure that payments routed or authorised by software agents meet the same security and compliance expectations as those initiated by humans.
Why standards matter
As more businesses and consumers experiment with software agents that can search, book and pay for goods and services on behalf of users, industry participants have raised concerns about fraud risks, abuse and regulatory compliance. The project led by Visa, Mastercard and Ant International is intended to provide a common approach that card networks, banks, merchants and technology providers can adopt to address those risks while enabling new forms of commerce.
Industry effort, not regulation
The companies framed the work as an industry-led standards initiative rather than a regulatory diktat. Such voluntary frameworks can help accelerate adoption by providing clarity to participants and regulators, but they will likely require coordination with banks, merchants and policymakers as implementations evolve.
The announcement signals growing attention from major payment firms to the operational and policy implications of AI agents. While the partners did not disclose a timeline or detailed technical specifications, their cooperation underscores the financial sector’s interest in shaping how autonomous software interacts with traditional payment rails.